Cooling system of vehicle having motor

ABSTRACT

A cooling system of vehicle having a motor includes: a mainline that provides a coolant flow channel; a radiator that is installed at one side of the mainline; a pump that is installed at the other side of the mainline; a first branch line and a second branch line that are branched from the main line; a first heat emitter and second heat emitter that are installed at the first branch line and the second branch line, respectively; and a control valve that supplies a coolant necessary for the first heat emitter and the second heat emitter by controlling flow of a coolant flowing from the mainline to the first branch line or the second branch line. 
     Therefore, by controlling a quantity of each coolant that is supplied to a first heat emitter including an inverter and a motor and a second heat emitter including a DC converter, a capacity of a coolant pump or an operation load can be reduced and thus entire cooling efficiency can be improved.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2012-0147774 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Dec. 17, 2012, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present disclosure relates to a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor that can improve cooling efficiency and output performance by effectively cooling heat emitters constituting an environmentally-friendly motor vehicle.

2. Background

A general internal combustion engine has a structure in which an engine, a pump, and a radiator are coupled in series.

However, an environmentally-friendly vehicle having a motor may have many heat emitters in a cooling system, requiring the vehicle to have a pump with a high ejecting pressure. As a result, the cooling system of an environmentally-friendly motor vehicle is somewhat inefficient.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional cooling system of a vehicle having a motor.

Referring to FIG. 1, a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor includes a radiator 100, a pump 110, a mainline 115, a first heat emitter 120, a second heat emitter 130, and a control unit 140.

At the mainline 115, the radiator 100 and the pump 110 are disposed. At a first branch line 116 and a second branch line 117 that are branched from the mainline 115, the first heat emitter 120 and the second heat emitter 130, respectively, are disposed.

The control unit 140 controls an entire coolant supply amount by controlling a rotation amount of the pump 110.

However, the control unit controls only the entire coolant supply amount and does not supply an appropriate amount of coolant necessary for the first heat emitter 120 and the second heat emitter 130. As a result, the cooling efficiency of the cooling system is deteriorated and thus the capacity or operation load of the pump 110 increases, whereby power performance of the vehicle may deteriorate.

The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the disclosure.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor with enhanced cooling efficiency by supplying a coolant necessary for each heat emitter thereby improving the power performance of the vehicle by reducing capacity or operation load of a coolant pump.

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure provides a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor including: a mainline that provides a coolant flow channel; a radiator that is installed at a first side of the mainline; a pump that is installed at a second side of the mainline; a first branch line and a second branch line that branch from the main line; a first heat emitter installed at the first branch line and a second heat emitter installed at the second branch line; and a control valve configured to supply a coolant necessary for the first heat emitter and the second heat emitter by controlling flow of a coolant flowing from the mainline to at least one of the first branch line or the second branch line.

The first heat emitter may be an inverter or a motor.

The second heat emitter may be a bi-directional high DC converter (BHDC) or a low DC converter (LDC).

The control valve may supply the same coolant flux to the first branch line and the second branch line in a normal operation condition.

The control valve may not supply a coolant to the first branch line and may supply a coolant to the second branch line in an idle state or a vehicle stop state.

The cooling system may further include a first temperature sensor configured to sense a temperature of the first heating element and a second temperature sensor configured to sense a temperature of the second heating element, wherein the control unit may sense a first temperature and a first temperature rising rate of the first heating element and sense a second temperature and a second temperature rising rate of the second heating element and may be configured to variably supply a coolant to the first branch line and the second branch line through the control valve according to the first temperature, the first temperature rising rate, the second temperature, and the second temperature rising rate.

The control valve may be a 3-way valve installed at a point branched to the first branch line and the second branch line from the mainline.

The control valve may include a first control valve installed at the first branch line; and a second control valve installed at the second branch line.

As described above, in a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, by controlling a quantity of each coolant that is supplied to a first heat emitter including an inverter and a motor and to a second heat emitter including a DC converter, a capacity of a coolant pump or an operation load can be reduced and thus cooling efficiency of the entire cooling system can be improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional cooling system of a vehicle having a motor.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a 3-way valve that is applied to a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will hereinafter be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 2, a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor is applied to a hybrid vehicle, a fuel cell vehicle, or an electric vehicle, which are environmentally-friendly vehicles having a motor and includes a radiator 100, a pump 110, a mainline 115, a first heat emitter 120, a second heat emitter 130, a control unit 140, and a control valve 200.

Other constituent elements of other vehicles that are not described in an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure are well-known technology and therefore a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

At the mainline 115, the radiator 100 and the pump 110 are disposed. At a first branch line 116 and a second branch line 117 that are branched from the mainline 115, the first heat emitter 120 and the second heat emitter 130, respectively, are disposed.

The control unit 140 independently controls the control valve 200 and the pump 110, thereby independently controlling an amount of a coolant that is supplied to the first heat emitter 120 and the second heat emitter 130.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the first heat emitter 120 includes an inverter and a motor, and the second heat emitter 130 includes a BHDC or a LDC.

For example, in a general downtown traveling condition, when a coolant of 10 LPM (liter per minute) should be supplied to each part (inverter, motor, LDC, BHDC), if a capacity of a pump is 20 LPM, without the control valve 200, a coolant of 12 LPM may be supplied to a first branch flow channel and a coolant of 8 LPM may be supplied to a second branch flow channel.

Therefore, in order to satisfy a flux, an ejection amount of the pump 110 would have to be increased to 25 LPM to allow 15 LPM to be supplied to the first branch line 116 and 10 LPM to be supplied to the second branch line 117.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, by use of the control valve 200, for a pump 110 having a capacity of 20 LPM, a coolant of 10 LPM may be supplied to each of the first branch line 116 and the second branch line 117.

Therefore, by use of the control valve 200, capacity of the pump 110 may be reduced or an operation load may be reduced, thereby leading to a decrease in a flow amount of an entire coolant. Thus, the cooling efficiency of the cooling system can be improved.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a 3-way valve that is applied to a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 3, the control valve 200 may have a 3-way control valve structure that distributes a coolant amount that is supplied in one direction in second and third directions and includes a rotation axis 300 that is disposed at a branch point and a valve blade 310 that is fixed to the rotation axis 300.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. In FIG. 4, portions that are not described in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3 are described in detail and a detailed description of constituent elements identical to or corresponding to portions that are described in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3 will be omitted.

Referring to FIG. 4, a first temperature sensor 400 is disposed at the first heat emitter 120 and a second temperature sensor 410 is disposed at the second heat emitter 130. The first temperature sensor 400 may sense a temperature of the first heat emitter 120, and the second temperature sensor 410 may sense a temperature of the second heat emitter 130.

The control unit 140 senses the first temperature and the first temperature rising rate of the first heat emitter 120 from the first temperature sensor 400 and senses a second temperature and a second temperature rising rate of the second heat emitter 130 from the second temperature sensor 410. The control unit 140 may then use the sensed temperature information to control the pump 110 and the control valve 200 to control the supply of coolant to the first heat emitter 120 and second heat emitter 130, thereby maintaining an efficient cooling performance.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a cooling system of a vehicle having a motor according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

In FIG. 5, portions that are not described in FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 4 are described in detail and a detailed description of constituent elements identical to or corresponding to portions that are described in FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 4 will be omitted.

Referring to FIG. 5, the first branch line 116 and the second branch line 117 are branched from the mainline 115. As a control valve, a first control valve 500 is disposed at the first branch line 116 and a second control valve 510 is disposed at the second branch line 117.

The control unit 140 may control the first control valve 500 and the second control valve 510, thereby controlling a quantity of a coolant that is supplied to the first heat emitter 120 and the second heat emitter 130. In some embodiments, when the vehicle idling or stopped, the control valve may control the coolants so at to not supply coolant to the first branch line and simultaneously supply coolant to the second branch line.

Further, the control unit 140 simultaneously controls an ejection amount of the pump 110.

While this disclosure has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be practical exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited to the exemplary embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS

100: radiator; 110: pump

115: mainline; 116: first branch line

117: second branch line; 120: first heat emitter

130: second heat emitter; 140: control unit

200: control valve; 500: first control valve

510: second control valve; 300: rotation axis

310: valve blade; 400: first temperature sensor

410: second temperature sensor 

What is claimed is:
 1. A cooling system of vehicle having a motor, the cooling system comprising: a mainline configured to provide a coolant flow channel; a radiator installed at a first side of the mainline; a pump installed at a second side of the mainline; a first branch line and a second branch line that branch from the main line; a first heat emitter installed at the first branch line, and a second heat emitting installed at the second branch line; and a control valve configured to supply a coolant necessary for the first heat emitter and the second heat emitter by controlling flow of a coolant flowing from the mainline to at least one of the first branch line or the second branch line.
 2. The cooling system of claim 1, wherein the first heat emitter is an inverter or a motor.
 3. The cooling system of claim 2, wherein the second heat emitter is a bi-directional high DC converter or a low DC converter.
 4. The cooling system of claim 1, wherein the control valve is configured to supply the same coolant flux to the first branch line and the second branch line in a normal operation condition.
 5. The cooling system of claim 4, wherein the control valve does not supply a coolant to the first branch line and supplies a coolant to the second branch line in an idle state or a vehicle stop state.
 6. The cooling system of claim 1, further comprising a first temperature sensor configured to sense a temperature of the first heating element and a second temperature sensor configured to sense a temperature of the second heating element, wherein the control unit is configured to: sense a first temperature and a first temperature rising rate of the first heating element and sense a second temperature and a second temperature rising rate of the second heating element, and variably supply a coolant to the first branch line and the second branch line through the control valve according to the first temperature, the first temperature rising rate, the second temperature, and the second temperature rising rate.
 7. The cooling system of claim 1, wherein the control valve is a 3-way valve installed at a point that is branched to the first branch line and the second branch line from the mainline.
 8. The cooling system of claim 1, wherein the control valve comprises: a first control valve installed at the first branch line; and a second control valve installed at the second branch line. 